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Notes on video lecture:
Alexander the Great, the Terrible, or the Insignificant
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on February 10, 2014 (go to class or lectures)


Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
Zeus, flattering, Messianic, wars, Insignificant, orthodoxy, alcoholic, Cortes, warriors, chaotically, sacrifices, Stalin, species, gods, resolved, ignore, Pella, philosopher, trophy, land, Hoplite
throughout history, Alexander the Great has been seen as a hero, or even more than a hero
as a Platonic king (Willian Tarn)
or even a figure like Jesus, sent on a mission to be the reconciler of the world
since the mid 20th century, however, a far less portrait of Alexander has been drawn
an unstable given to wine-fueled rages and violence
some say that he had no lasting effects on the ancient world or that if he had any, they can be compared to that of and the Conquistadors had on the Aztecs from 1519 to 1522
while the popular view of Alexander remains a favorable one, a new scholarly about him has emerged
some think he should be rechristened Alexander the Terrible or Alexander the
two reasons for this new orthodoxy
consciously reconstructing a more accurate and less mythological picture of who he was
these scholars are writing in the long, dark shadows cast by ruthless 20th century rulers such as Hitler and
why have played so much of a role in history?
our evidence of recorded human activity goes back to 3,000 BCE and we find accounts of warfare in all kinds of different forms through history
you could it but then you really wouldn't be doing your job as an historian
why it's the case could be a philosophical or scientific question
the fact that every single society that we know about since written history has practiced some form of warfare would suggest that this is more than just a cultural phenomenon, that it has to do with our , actually
more study could be devoted to this
Alexander was very good at the practice of war, if also morally condemned
Alexander believed that the play favorites
he clearly thought that the gods favored him to win victories
before every battle he would give to a group of deities
afterwards he would make sacrifices thanking them for giving him victory
Greeks believed that certain gods were helpful in warfare
Athena
Artemis
Zeus
believed the gods were helpful to some people and not so helpful to others
*** they didn't believe that there was a god or gods that loved and favored us equally, they strongly believed that individuals were favored by individual gods or groups of them
*** Alexander thought that he had been chosen by specific gods, particularly by , for successes that were unprecedented
warfare
one of the most striking things about it was its ritualistic element
it usually didn't start out the way much combat in world history does
a typical Hoplite battle started out with two different sides making sacrifices and then marching out in order into an open field to the sound of music being played, then stopping, and then rushing across the field and clashing, someone winning, and someone losing
then after the battle, the winning side going out onto the battlefield and literally setting up a that said, we won here today
this shows a motivation for a lot of warfare in ancient Greece, which was to take ahold of that was so essential to their economies
Alexander's parents
brought to in Macedon great teachers to educate th 13 year old Alexander, including Aristotle
politics
eristics
disputation
what does Alexander have to teach us?
he's such a large, complex figure, but one aspect that he can help us understand is that there aren't easy answers to interpretations of complex characters or complex events
one of the great fascinations of Alexander is that he can't be easily , he can't be simplified,
he will be on the list of anyone's top two or three in history
as long as human beings are going to be involved in warfare, then they will come back to Alexander to try to learn about someone who probably was, overall, the most successful warrior in history
pronunciation
Achaemenid
ah-KEE-mah-nid, empire
Vocabulary:
eristic, n. a type of argumentation style which has the aim to win an argument or engage in a conflict for the sole purpose of defeating the other side, as opposed to the seeking of conflict resolution or discovering a true or probable answer to any specific question or topic ⇒ "Bryson of Heraclea introduced eristic dialectic after Euclides." |
People:
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######################### (356-323 BC) Greek king of the ancient kingdom of Macedon who by the age of thirty created one of the largest empires of the ancient world
|
Flashcards:
three gods Greeks found helpful in warfare
Athena, Artemis, Zeus
Ideas and Concepts:
Via this morning's Alexander the Great class: "Historians should neither be cheerleaders for history's victors, nor advocates for the vanquished. The essential job of a historian is to describe and account for change over time and tell the truth about it. As your professor for this class, I'm here to do that for you. It will then be up to you to decide if Alexander was great, terrible, or insignificant, why, and to what degree."
Alexander the Great in a Nutshell via this morning's class: "Being such a large, complex figure, one aspect that Alexander the Great can help us understand is that there aren't easy answers to interpretations of complex characters or complex events. One of the great fascinations of Alexander is that he can't be easily resolved or simplified. As long as people are interested in the past and particularly in military history, Alexander the Great will be on the list of anyone's top two or three warriors of all time. And as long as human beings are going to be involved in warfare, then they will come back to Alexander to try to learn about someone who probably was, overall, the most successful warrior in history."